The Boomer Consumer is dedicated to helping boomers get what they want in life through using consumer information, making effective choices, and sharing their own experiences.

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Nicholas Lore, career coach and author of “The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction and Success,” offers these tips to help people over 50 find a job they’ll love.

Make it a project. If you don’t need a new job right away, forget about job hunting until your target is specific. Design your career first. Then search for the job when you know exactly what you’re seeking.

Become a career detective. Look for clues about how you and the workplace best fit together. Look at what you do happily, naturally, and even brilliantly: your innate talents and a lifetime of experiences.

Focus on your strengths. Some organizations look for the person with the perfect resume. Others focus on finding the best people. That’s where older workers shine. They have the experience and wisdom to get the job done well now.

Research jobs that seem to fit. Read, search online, and talk with people who do the job you’re considering.

Conduct a smart job search. Few people find the right job through online job listings. Decision-makers prefer to hire people they know. Find ways to get to meet and speak with decision-makers: people who could actually hire you to do the job you want.

Persist. An effective job search takes time. You may be rejected many times before you land the job you want. Since we all tend to resist discomfort, it’s natural to avoid any activity that leads what the mind interprets as failure. As a result, people often give less time each week to their job search. Defuse this by realizing that you will hear “no” many times before you hear “yes.” It’s just part of the game.

Stephen A. Laser, Ph.D., organizational psychologist and author of “Out-of-Work and Over-40,”says companies have added a layer of difficulty to the hiring process, which older workers may not be aware of.

You’ll probably be asked to take an on-line test to be considered for an interview. Then after the interview, you’ll likely need to take a behaviorally-based methods test questioning your qualifications for the job.

Laser offers these tips for getting through the new testing procedures and giving a positive accounting of yourself.

On-line testing: What are employers looking for?

Most on-line tests are surveys seeking to measure a job applicant’s attitudes and likely responses to certain job-related situations. They’re looking to measure a person’s conscientiousness and attitudes toward work, including paying attention to detail, being organized, and meeting deadlines. The tests also focus on a person’s ability to get along with others in the workplace.

In answering questions, the best approach is to consider your behavior in the company of your colleagues at work, not your family and friends. While we can often say what’s on our minds to our family and friends, it can be detrimental in the workplace.

Also use caution when asked if you “strongly agree” or “strongly disagree” with an item along with milder responses in between. If you have a strongly held belief about something, then express it, but answering in the extreme to show the strength of your convictions isn’t always a good idea.

In addition, don’t try to manage your impression too hard. Most sophisticated tests have scales which measure “faking” and you don’t want to be flagged for making yourself appear unrealistically attractive as a potential employee.

Behaviorally-based interview questions: What are they?

These questions center on situations a job applicant may have encountered in a previous job. For example, employers ask a candidate about a time they dealt with a difficult employee or had to plan a project from start to finish. Or, they may ask about handling an unexpected change at work or dealing with an important customer that wanted you to bend the rules.

When giving examples from previous jobs, make sure you recall situations from different employers and not just one position or company.

In addition, make sure you come prepared to job interviews with two or three examples of successes and setbacks in your career. Be able to explain briefly what happened along with your role and the role of others in the situation. Next, tell what you learned, and how you’ve applied those lessons in new situations.

What about the most dreaded of all interview questions, “Tell me your biggest weakness?” Remember, your biggest weakness is probably your biggest strength taken to extreme.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..